Charles Champlin

Not to be confused withCharles Chaplin.

Charles Champlin
Born	Charles Davenport Champlin (1926-03-23)March 23, 1926 Hammondsport, New York,U.S.
Died	November 16, 2014(2014-11-16)(aged 88) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery
Occupation	Film critic

Charles Davenport Champlin(March 23, 1926 – November 16, 2014) was an Americanfilm criticandwriter.

Life and career

Champlin was born inHammondsport, New York.He attended high school inCamden, New York,working as a columnist for theCamden Advance-Journaland editor Florence Stone.His family has been active in the wine industry in upstate New York since 1855. He served in the infantry in Europe inWorld War IIand was awarded thePurple Heartand battle stars. He graduated fromHarvard Universityin 1948 and joinedLifemagazine.

Champlin was a writer and correspondent forLifeandTimemagazine for seventeen years, and was a member of theOverseas Press Club.He joined theLos Angeles Timesas entertainment editor and columnist in 1965, was its principal film critic from 1967 to 1980, and wrote book reviews and a regular column titled "Critic at Large". He co-founded theLos Angeles Film Critics Association,and has been a board member of theAmerican Cinematheque.

Champlin's television career began in 1971 when he hostedFilm OdysseyonPBS,introducing classic films and interviewing major directors. That same year, he hosted a live music series,Homewood,forKCET,the Los Angeles PBS station. For six years he co-hosted a public affairs program,Citywatchers,on KCET with columnist Art Seidenbaum. He has interviewed hundreds of film personalities, first on theZ Channel'sOn the Film Scenein Los Angeles, then withChamplin on FilmonBravo.

Champlin taught film criticism atLoyola Marymount Universityfrom 1969 to 1985, was adjunct professor of film at USC from 1985 to 1996, and has also taught atUC Irvineand theAFI Conservatory.He has also written many books, including his biographiesBack There where the Past Was(1989) andA Life in Writing(2006).

In 1980 Champlin was on the jury of the feature film competition at that year'sCannes Film Festival,serving alongside the likes ofKirk Douglas,Ken AdamandLeslie Caron.Twelve years later, in 1992, he was a member of the jury at the42nd Berlin International Film Festivaland served on the advisory board of theLos Angeles Student Film Institute.

In his later years, since the late 1990s, Champlin hadmacular degeneration,and in 2001 wroteMy Friend, You Are Legally Blind,amemoirabout his struggle with the disease. He died on November 16, 2014, aged 88, suffering fromAlzheimer's disease.

Bibliography

• The Flicks: Or, Whatever Became of Andy Hardy.1977,ISBN0-378-06164-X
• The Movies Grow Up: 1940–1980.1982,ISBN0-8040-0363-7
• George Lucas: The Creative Impulse. Lucasfilm's First Twenty Years.1992,ISBN0-8109-3564-3
• John Frankenheimer: A Conversation With Charles Champlin.1995,ISBN1-880756-09-9
• Hollywood's Revolutionary Decade: Charles Champlin Reviews the Movies of the 1970s.1998,ISBN1-880284-26-X
• Back There Where the Past Was: A Small-Town Boyhood.1999,ISBN0-8156-0612-5(Foreword by Ray Bradbury)
• My Friend, You Are Legally Blind: A Writer's Struggle with Macular Degeneration.2001,ISBN1-880284-48-0
• A Life in Writing: The Story of an American Journalist.2006,ISBN0-8156-0847-0

External links

• Obituary inLos Angeles Times
• Internet Movie Database b
• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences bio
• Profile of Champlin's ancestors
• A film clip"The Open Mind - A Critical Mass (1988)"is available for viewing at theInternet Archive